Chapter 279

After some negotiation, it couldn't be said that they parted on bad terms, but the attitude of neither side giving way also caused the plan for the "Batman" trilogy to be temporarily shelved.

For Warner Bros., they could accept giving Wu Yuchen a 20+20 salary, but it couldn't be the global box office share Wu Yuchen was shouting for, but rather a North American box office share. In Hollywood, this was already considered a top salary; not many people could get it. But Wu Yuchen wouldn't budge on the global box office share, which left them helpless, and they could only temporarily suspend negotiations.

Warner Bros. wasn't in a hurry either. In recent years, Warner Bros. could be said to be the best-performing company among the Hollywood Big Seven, with blockbuster projects appearing one after another. The "Harry Potter" series, the "Matrix" series, and even "The Lord of the Rings" could actually be attributed to Warner Bros., because New Line Cinema was actually a label company under Warner Bros. with independent management rights.

So Warner Bros. wasn't in a rush; they had profitable series projects supporting them every year, especially "Harry Potter," with one installment every year, giving them enough patience to drag out the negotiations with Wu Yuchen.

Wu Yuchen wasn't in a hurry either. He couldn't film "Batman" in the short term; next year's filming schedule had already been set, which was the back-to-back filming of the two "Pirates of the Caribbean" films. Even if "Batman" were to be filmed, it would have to wait until the year after next. Let's just negotiate with Warner Bros. slowly!

Once the sequels to "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Spider-Man" continued to explode, he didn't believe Warner Bros. could continue to sit still.

Hollywood, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, stars gathered.

Watching stars like Leonardo, Johnny Depp, and Jackie Chan walk past on the red carpet one after another, and seeing famous directors like Spielberg, Soderbergh, and Katzenberg appear here successively, and even some well-known producers and executives in the circle coming to show their support, Jeffrey also felt moved in his heart by the breadth of Wu Yuchen's connections in Hollywood.

However, Jeffrey didn't come here today to see these celebrities; his focus was naturally on the new film "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" that Wu Yuchen was premiering today. As a film critic with Oscar voting rights, he had also received an invitation.

Over the past few years, besides achieving dazzling results in commercial films, Wu Yuchen had also achieved success one after another at the Oscars. Jeffrey was also very much looking forward to this new Oscar-pushing film of Wu Yuchen's. After all, only if the Oscars could continuously produce excellent films would the presence of film critics and judges like them be stronger.

However, at this moment, Jeffrey was chatting with his companion about other topics:

"Did you watch the President's speech yesterday?"

At the same time, Jeffrey already had expectations in his heart. Whether from the name of the film or from this sentence, this film was likely a film about children.

Under these circumstances, Wu Yuchen's "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas," which claimed to be an anti-war film, actually aroused the interest of many people.

After the lights in the theater went out, Jeffrey and his companion stopped talking and put their minds on the film.

Just from a few seconds of footage, Jeffrey had already read a lot of information and analyzed it from the music and the film's color tone; after all, this was his profession. And soon, he followed the male protagonist, the 8-year-old boy Bruno, into the story.

The people present were also relatively focused. After seeing this sentence, they kept it in their hearts, knowing that the director's arrangement of this sentence at the beginning must have a meaning.

"Clearly, those people have long coveted the oil in the Middle East. And Bush Sr. had grievances with Iraq when he was in office."

When Jeffrey combined it with the time of 1940 just given, he understood in his heart that this was during World War II. And watching these children imitating fighter planes, watching the children use their hands as guns and making "pa-pa-pa" sounds with their mouths, it was clear that they had already been affected by the war.

The father was a high-ranking officer in the Japanese-occupied area of China, so the little boy could live a carefree life even during World War II. The family moved to a large villa in the suburbs due to the father's job transfer, but the layers of barbed wire, the strict guards, and the frantic barking of those fierce wolfhounds all revealed a sense of oppression and unease.

Little Bruno didn't know what these "farms" were, but the audience in the theater at this moment knew; this was clearly a concentration camp, and the "striped pajamas" were the prisoners in the concentration camp.

"Isn't the real final price to be paid by the civilians?!"

"Before the arrival of dark reason, children perceive this world with their natural feelings."

The two people spoke one after another.

At the same time, Jeffrey also secretly thought it was clever. Although there had been many films about Nazis in the past, and it wasn't as if there hadn't been films shot from the perspective of Fascist criminals, this time the male protagonist of Wu Yuchen's film was a cute little boy, a child with a pure heart that no one could hate, even if his father was a Fascist officer. And from the perspective of such a child, one could actually see some unique things that couldn't be seen before!

When the young and handsome Japanese officer Huang Huang Xiao Ming first appeared, the first impression he gave people wasn't bad: handsome, strong, and looking very graceful, which directly captivated the young girl Shu Chang, who had just entered puberty.

But high walls and barbed wire couldn't block a child's curious and exploring gaze. The lonely little Bruno soon discovered a small window in his room, and through that small piece of window glass, he could see a small farm. This farm seemed very interesting, and more importantly, there were many children in the farm who looked the same age as him, even though they were all wearing strange-looking "striped pajamas."

And unlike last year, this year anti-war protests had already begun to appear on the streets, and some people in Hollywood had also successively spoken out against the clouds of war brewing within America.

"Watched it. These politicians are really damned. It wasn't enough to hijack public opinion to launch the Afghanistan War, and now they want to stir up hostility toward Iraq again. What on earth do they want to do?!"

Before the film started, a sentence first appeared on the black screen:

"We must call on more people to stand up and let everyone understand the cruelty of war!"

Yesterday, President Bush delivered a speech, once again emphasizing that America is currently facing severe terrorist dangers. It's not just terrorists, but Iraq also possesses dangerous weapons, and America has the responsibility to maintain world peace.

Sure enough, at the beginning of the film, amidst a burst of melodious music, several boys were seen spreading their arms like airplanes, chasing each other on the street, and making fighter plane sounds with their mouths. On the street where the children were running, soldier arrests were also happening at the same time, and only the children seemed to be laughing unaffected.

Jeffrey also understood Director Wu Yuchen's intentions at this time. This was very likely a film reflecting Fascist crimes during World War II, only in the past, the evil side everyone saw was Germany, and this time it should be depicting Japan's invasion of China.

However, his grace was only shown to a certain group of people. When he changed his face toward the old servant in striped clothes, and when he roared out that "Shina pig," everyone present knew what kind of person this guy was. Especially the Jews like Spielberg, because those Nazis also called them "Jewish pigs" during World War II.

Chen Baoguo also hired a tutor for little Bruno and his sister, not only to teach them Japanese but also to continuously brainwash them, promoting Japan as a divine country, the guardian of civilization in the Eastern land, and the Emperor as a god.

And Japan's purpose in launching the war was to liberate the whole of Asia, with the ultimate goal of establishing a "King's Way Paradise" of Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity. At the same time, they advocated racial theory: Japanese people are the light of the yellow race, higher than the races of all surrounding countries, while China is a lowly nation, and most people are sinful people...

This made the audience in the audience frown one after another. They naturally knew that this kind of "spiritual education class" was actually brainwashing.

However, little Bruno felt a different feeling through his contact with the old servant than what the teacher taught in class. At the same time, during his adventure, he met a "striped shirt" friend in the farm, little Shunjun.

Watching the two children become friends across the barbed wire, Jeffrey couldn't help but reveal a smile. Innocence is precious, precisely because children can treat anyone with kindness and sincerity regardless of nationality, race, or age.

Little Bruno making a new friend here was very beautiful, but on the other hand, his mother began to collapse after learning the truth and had a big argument with his father. And this also triggered a dispute at the dinner party later, and the old servant was also dragged outside by Huang Huang Xiao Ming in a fit of anger and beaten to death.

All of this scared little Bruno. At night, he ran to his sister's bed, but his sister, who used to believe in Buddha and liked dolls and toys, had already become a puppet girl. She didn't care about the old servant's death and bluntly said that this was all the sinful people's own fault.

Seeing this, Jeffrey was already somewhat moved. The sister's character clearly formed a sharp contrast with the boy. A little girl who originally had her own faith and was kind had already disregarded life because of this brainwashing. But this wasn't her own fault; children are the easiest to be polluted. If a few more years passed, would little Bruno also become like his sister?

Regarding all this, the film didn't give any judgment of right or wrong, but only raised some questions through the perspective of the child little Bruno and displayed them in front of the audience.

Little Bruno didn't want to believe that his friend was a bad person, but his sister's words and the teacher's words also had an impact on him, making him hesitate, and he didn't go to find this new friend for several days.

One day, while the family was cleaning, little Bruno discovered Shunjun, who was wiping cups. He was still wearing that striped shirt, thin and weak. Little Bruno was very happy and took the initiative to give the pastries on the table to Shunjun to eat. However, just as Shunjun was eating happily, Huang Huang Xiao Ming broke in.

Huang Huang Xiao Ming looked down at the two children with a very fierce and oppressive expression and angrily scolded Shunjun for being a "Shina pig" with low morals who stole food.

Both children were terrified. Shunjun stuttered that the pastry wasn't stolen by him, but given by his friend Bruno. But when little Bruno saw Huang Huang Xiao Ming's questioning and fierce gaze looking at him, and that face with bulging veins, and heard the roaring questioning sound in his ears, he retreated. He immediately cleared his relationship with Shunjun.

Sighs sounded in the theater. It was clear that little Bruno's actions disappointed everyone. However, seeing that he was only an 8-year-old boy, everyone unconsciously chose to forgive him. After all, he was just a child, and he was facing an extremely fierce executioner. How many children could withstand this kind of oppression?

Little Bruno felt some regret for his cowardice. He wanted to find Shunjun again, but he didn't see him again several times.

One day, many Japanese officers came to the house, and there were even superiors whom his father had to be respectful to. Little Bruno secretly watched the promotional film they were showing in the screening room from the window. The film showed that those Chinese people in the "farm" were very happy, working during the day, living comfortably after work, and children playing with each other. The game items were so dazzling that little Bruno felt dizzy looking at them, far more interesting than little Bruno who was trapped alone in the large villa!

Little Bruno believed the content of the film and gave his father a hug. He thought his father was doing things that made everyone happy.

And the audience in the theater all knew clearly that this was just the fake propaganda trick played by the Fascists; the content of the entire promotional film was all fake.

Little Bruno came to the camp again. This time he saw Shunjun, whose eyes were beaten swollen, apologized to him, and hoped he could forgive him. Shunjun nodded, and the two little hands held together through the barbed wire, and then everyone in the entire theater followed the two boys and revealed a slight smile.

Huang Huang Xiao Ming, the Japanese officer, was transferred to the front line by Chen Baoguo and got into a car under little Bruno's gaze.

Watching Hearing Gong Li sitting on the swing on the screen with a pale face, disheveled hair, and swinging with the swing, Jeffrey understood that his mother had reached the edge of collapse. She believed in Buddha, but her husband had been harming innocent people in this way...

Hearing Gong Li and Chen Baoguo had a fierce argument, and the result was that Chen Baoguo asked Hearing Gong Li to take the two children and move away. Little Bruno, who already had a deep friendship with Shunjun, didn't want to leave, but his parents didn't give him any room for discussion at all.

Little Bruno came to the outside of the barbed wire in the corner of the concentration camp again to say goodbye to his friend Shunjun, while Shunjun was worried about his missing father. Out of his own guilt, little Bruno wanted to help Shunjun find his father before leaving...

When this sentence was spoken, Jeffrey had a bad premonition. They were about to leave, but an accident happened. This was a common trope in films. Although the trope was old, it was indeed very useful, and everyone's heart was moved by the following plot.

The next day, little Bruno dug a hole with his little shovel, and his little body successfully crawled under the barbed wire, and he even put on the clothes Shunjun brought him.

Clearly, little Bruno had never thought that danger would happen, because he had just seen in the film a while ago how happy everyone in this "farm" was!

Before leaving, Hearing Gong Li couldn't find her son anywhere. Seeing the food dropped on the ground, she realized the seriousness of the matter and broke into the meeting where Chen Baoguo was. Chen Baoguo took a bunch of soldiers and military dogs and discovered the traces of his son leaving from the back door window and hurriedly chased after him...

The sky was thundering, and an oppressive and destructive atmosphere rushed toward them. All the audience already had an ominous premonition. No matter how much they hated Chen Baoguo, the father, before, they all hoped he could arrive at the concentration camp quickly and find little Bruno.

And at this time, little Bruno, who entered the concentration camp, discovered that the camp was completely different from what it looked like in the film. The environment was extremely bad, and most people were thin and bony, which made him a little scared. He wanted to give up, but he gathered his courage for his friend...

They walked into the house where Shunjun lived. Suddenly, there was a loud noise, and everyone was driven out. In the rainstorm and thunder, the two children were wrapped in the center by a group of adults and walked toward an unknown place...

When watching them being taken into a dark room and asked to take off their clothes, murmurs had already sounded in the theater: "Don't..."

And watching the father who had already arrived at the gate of the concentration camp on the other side, everyone couldn't help but cheer for him in their hearts, wanting him to be a little faster.

But at this time, people like Spielberg sighed, having already sensed the final tragedy...

In the noisy room, it was full of naked, thin, and bony people squeezed together. Little Bruno was very scared and kept panting. The hands of the two children were tightly held together, representing the pure friendship of two innocent children.

When the iron door above their heads opened, the two looked up and saw a person wearing a Japanese military uniform and a gas mask sprinkle black powder, and the screen fell into darkness...

Watching Chen Baoguo standing blankly in the concentration camp shouting his son's name, and watching Hearing Gong Li crying bitterly, the hearts of the audience also cracked.